Stupid Assassins Creed inspired this, then I had flashbacks of various other games I had played that sort of helped define some stuff.
This is another multiplayer idea, but its asymmetrical. One team is cops/bodyguards, the other "team" is a random player chosen to be the assassin. The VIP is computer controlled. Playing the VIP in games kinda sucks, so I figured drop that aspect. I'd just have him follow a defined path (or a randomly selected defined path to keep things interesting).
I had an interesting art style picked out in my head. I want it very clean and sparse, things would be more iconic than realistic. You know the little man icon on the mens room sign? Thats basically how everyone would look. I also want to use the Doom engine and just have everything be billboarded sprites that always face the camera. Make the game almost feel like a training program or something along those lines.
The other reason I want sprites and not 3D models...I want lots of them on screen. There was this experimental games I played a while ago called Dueling Machine (
scroll down) where you were in a city filled with thousands of people. All old Doom WAD sprites. The game had you looking for a specific character in this huge mass of people. You used sonar to locate him (your target could hear when you used the sonar so he knew how close and direction you were coming from). You had one bullet to hit your target to win.
Back to my idea:
So maybe not an entire city, but a large-ish map where you can lots of these dumb AI NPCs walking around semi-randomly. Maybe a shopping mall? The VIP is here to make a speech. It will follow a path, get out on the podium, maybe a little speech (voice synth would be kinda funny here with the right script, in a "bodyguard training tool" kind of way). Bodyguards need to keep the VIP safe and track down the assassin. The assassin has one bullet to hit the VIP with, and then must escape to an exit.
The assassin wont have a huge tell. He should generally blend in with the crowd. Once he pulls his gun he turns bright red. The bodyguards should be on their toes to either take the bullet for the VIP, or shoot the assassin before he get the kill. Taking a bullet for the VIP actually raises your score and doesnt give the assassin any points. Even if the assassin fails his primary mission, he can still break for an exit to earn some points (live to fight another day). The cops will give chase through the crowd of people and try stop him. Each cop has 6 bullets, but cant hit any NPCs or lose major points.
A bright red assassin sticks out against all the NPCs (I picture them all as a sterile white). So I thought maybe the NPCs could be less dumb and more interesting. If NPCs see the assassin pull a gun, they will gasp and run away from him in panic. Paniced NPCs turn a random color (other than red, reserved for assassin). Cops can give shouts for the NPCs to move, causing them to get out of the way during a chase.
I also had the idea of the assassin being able to try blend back in to the crowd if he could go without being seen. Not sure how to pull it off exactly, but if you arent in the line of site of any players, you start to fade back from red to white. This would make things more interesting on the cops. The entire team can huddle around the VIP to take the bullet, but if the assassin is up above you and can run back into the crowd you'll lose him. So a better option would be to station your team around the area to look for threats and to keep your eyes on as much area as possible to prevent escapes.
Thats the basic idea. Assassins score points for killing the VIP and for escaping. Bodyguards score for saving the VIP and for keeping the assassin from escaping. Both lose points for striking innocent bystanders.
I'd love to play something like this. Standing near the VIP, watching the crowd for anyone acting strange. Suddenly some screams and the crowd turns into a rainbow of color with a bright red assassin in the middle. A shot is fired and the VIP is hit, and the assassin runs. I'd dive into the crowd yelling at them to move out of the way as I try chase down and pick out the assassin hoping to gun him down before he can reach an exit.
